Social and environmental groups from the northern Argentine province of Santiago del Estero, which lost 2.5 million hectares of forest in the 20th century, denounce the government's bill on forest conservation and use. The legislative initiative adopted just some of the suggestions made by the so-called Land Panel, composed of academics, farmers, religious leaders and environmentalists. The group told Tierramérica that the bill ignores ''key'' concepts and measures for protecting forested lands.

The deterioration of the province's forests accelerated in recent years due to the advance of the soybean farming. According to studies by the forestry department of the National University of Santiago del Estero, in the past decade another 450,000 hectares of forest were cleared.

In mid-2004, at the request of the Land Panel, the provincial government decreed a 180-day moratorium in logging, and began to work on a land regulation bill that should be approved by the legislature this year.